Part 24

The face of the Innuit is broad below the eyes, the forehead is narrow and receding, the chin and lower jaw broad and heavy. The nose is usually broad and flattened, but not always; occasionally one is seen whose features are well formed and handsome. In the young children this is the almost invariable rule; many of them are really beautiful. The eyes are small and black, and appear to be slightly oblique, and for this reason, perhaps more than any other, they have been classed with the Mongolidae. They have large mouths, thick, loosely hanging lips, and fine, strong teeth. These, however, from eating raw food, are usually very much worn. The labrets worn in the lips are hideous-looking things, made of bone, glass, stone, ivory, or in fact anything within the reach of the native which can be worked into the requisite shape.

They have rather light skin, very different from the Indians of the plains; and in this also they differ from the Tchuktchis, being much lighter, and when cleansed from the dirt which usually covers them, and freed from the sunburn and tan due to long exposure, they become quite fair. They have small, well-formed hands and feet, much smaller in proportion than white men. This was particularly noticeable when buying boots and mittens from them for our use; only the largest sizes made by them could be used at all. They are generally without beard, but as the men grow old, they sometimes have a thin, straggling mustache and beard, but it is never full and regular. The hair is coarse and black.

1885, Ray:[87]

Pages 37-38: The following table will show that physically the Inyu of North American coast does not conform to the typical idea of the Eskimo. They are robust, healthy people, fairer than the North American Indian, with brown eyes and straight black hair. The men are beardless until they attain the age of from 20 to 25 years, and even then it is very light and scattering, and is always clipped close in the winter; at this season they also cut off their eyebrows and tonsure their crown like a priest, with bangs over their forehead. Their hands and feet are extremely small and symmetrical; they are graceful in their movements when unincumbered by heavy clothing.

Page 46: Physically both sexes are very strong and possess great powers of endurance.

1888, Murdoch:[88]

In stature these people are of a medium height, robust, and muscular, inclining rather to spareness than corpulence, though the fullness of the face and the thick fur clothing often gives the impression of the latter. There is, however, considerable individual variation among them in this respect. The women are as a rule shorter than the men, occasionally almost dwarfish, though some women are taller than many of the men. The tallest man observed measured 5 feet 9½ inches and the shortest 4 feet 11 inches. The tallest woman was 5 feet 3 inches in height and the shortest 4 feet ½ inch. The heaviest man weighed 204 pounds and the lightest 126 pounds. One woman weighed 192 pounds and the shortest woman was also the lightest, weighing only 100 pounds. The hands and feet are small and well shaped, though the former soon become distorted and roughened by work. We did not observe the peculiar breadth of hands noticed by Doctor Simpson, nor is the shortness of the thumb which he mentions sufficient to attract attention. Their feet are so small that only one of our party, who is much below the ordinary size, was able to wear the boots made by the natives for themselves. Small and delicate hands and feet appear to be a universal characteristic of the Eskimo race and have been mentioned by most observers from Greenland to Alaska.

The face is broad, flat, and round, with high cheek bones and rather low forehead, broad across the brow and narrowing above, while the head is somewhat pointed toward the crown. The peculiar shape of the head is somewhat masked by the way of wearing the hair and is best seen in the skull. The nose is short, with little or no bridge--few Eskimo were able to wear our spring eyeglasses--and broad, especially across the alæ nasæ, with a peculiar, rounded, somewhat bulbous tip, and large nostrils. The eyes are horizontal, with rather full lids and are but slightly sunken below the level of the face.

The mouth is large and the lips full, especially the under one. The teeth are naturally large, and in youth are white and generally regular, but by middle age they are generally worn down to flat-crowned stumps, as is usual among the Eskimo. The color of the skin is a light yellowish brown, with often considerable ruddy color on the cheeks and lips. There appears to be much natural variation in the complexion, some women being nearly as fair as Europeans, while other individuals seem to have naturally a coppery color. In most cases the complexion appears darker than it really is from the effects of exposure to the weather. All sunburn very easily, especially in the spring, when there is a strong reflection from the snow.

The old are much wrinkled, and they frequently suffer from watery eyes, with large sacks under them, which begin to form at a comparatively early age. There is considerable variation in features, as well as complexion, among them, even in cases where there seems to be no suspicion of mixed blood. There were several men among them with decided aquiline noses and something of a Hebrew cast of countenance. The eyes are of various shades of dark brown--two pairs of light hazel eyes were observed--and are often handsome. The hair is black, perfectly straight, and very thick. With the men it is generally coarser than with the women, who sometimes have very long and silky hair, though it generally does not reach much below the shoulders. The eyebrows are thin and the beard scanty, growing mostly upon the upper lip and chin and seldom appearing under the age of 20. In this they resemble most Eskimo. Back, however, speaks of the "luxuriant beards and flowing mustaches" of the Eskimo of the Great Fish River. Some of the older men have rather heavy black mustaches, but there is much variation in this respect. The upper part of the body, as much as is commonly exposed in the house, is remarkably free from hair. The general expression is good humored and attractive.

The males, even when very young, are remarkable for their graceful and dignified carriage. The body is held erect, with the shoulders square and chest well thrown out, the knees straight, and the feet firmly planted on the ground. In walking they move with long swinging elastic strides, the toes well turned out and the arms swinging. * * *

I should say that they walked like well-built athletic white men. The women, on the other hand, although possessing good physiques, are singularly ungraceful in their movements. They walk at a sort of shuffling half trot, with the toes turned in, the body leaning forward, and the arms hanging awkwardly.

A noticeable thing about the women is the remarkable flexibility of the body and limbs and the great length of time they can stand in a stooping posture. * * * Both men and women have a very fair share of muscular strength. Some of the women especially showed a power of carrying heavy loads superior to most white men. We were able to make no other comparisons of their strength with ours. Their power of endurance is very great, and both sexes are capable of making long distances on foot. Two men sometimes spend 24 hours tramping through the rough ice in search of seals, and we knew of instances where small parties made journeys of 50 or 75 miles on foot without stopping to sleep.

The women are not prolific. Although all the adults are or have been married, many of them are childless, and few have more than two children. One woman was known to have at least four, but investigations of this sort were rendered extremely difficult by the universal custom of adoption. Doctor Simpson heard of a "rare case" where one woman had borne seven children. We heard of no twins at either village, though we obtained the Eskimo word for twins.

1890, Murdoch:[89]

The people who live on the extreme northwest corner of our continent are far from being an ugly or an ill-made race. Though they are not tall--a man of 5 feet 10 inches is a tall man among them--they are well proportioned, broad shouldered, and deep chested. The men, as a rule, are particularly well "set up," like well-drilled soldiers and walk and stand with a great deal of grace and dignity.

The women do not have such good figures, but are inclined to slouchiness. They are seldom inclined to be fleshy, though their plump, round faces, along with their thick fur clothing, often give them the appearance of being fat. They generally have round, full faces, with rather high cheek bones, small, rounded noses, full lips, and small chins. Still, you now and then see a person with an oval face and aquiline nose. Many of the men are very good looking, and some of the young women are exceedingly pretty. Their complexion is a dark brunet, often with a good deal of bright color on the cheeks and especially on the lips. They sunburn very much, especially in the spring, when the glare of the sun is reflected from the snow. They have black or dark-brown eyes and abundant black hair. The women's hair is often long and silky. When they are young they have white and regular teeth, but these are worn down to stumps before middle life is reached. Cheerful and merry faces are the rule.

1890, Kelly:[90]

_Personal appearance._--There are three types observable among the Arctic Eskimos of Alaska. The tall, cadaverous natives of Kangoot, Seelawik, Koovuk, and Kikiktowruk, on Kotzebue Sound, who live on fish, ptarmigans, and marmots. They always have a hungry look and habitually wear a grin of fiendish glee at having circumvented an adverse fate. There is a tendency among these people to migrate north.

Then there is the tall, strongly knit type of the Nooatoks, a gigantic race, of a splendid physique that would be remarkable in any part of the world.

Rugged as the mountains among which they live, vigorous and courageous, they stop at nothing but the impossible to accomplish a desired end. Their food supply is the reindeer, mountain sheep, ptarmigans, and fish. There are many of the coast natives of this type, but they lack the healthy glow and the indomitable will of the Nooatoks.

The third type is the short, stumpy one, probably that of the old Eskimo before the admixture with southern tribes, now found on the Arctic coast. * * *

The Eskimos have coarse, black hair, some with a tinge of brown. Many of the coast people of both sexes are bald from scrofulous eruptions. Males have the crown of the head closely cropped, so that reindeer may not see the waving locks when the hunter creeps behind bunch grass. They have black eyes and high cheek bones. The bones of the face are better protected from the severity of the climate by a thicker covering of flesh than southern races.

Among the coast people the nose is broad and flat, with very little or no ridge between the eyes. The adult males have short mustaches, and some of the elder ones--more noticeable in the interior--have rough, scraggy beards. Generally their beard is very scant, and most of them devote otherwise idle hours to pulling out the hairs.

1900, Nelson:[91]

The Eskimo from Bering Strait to the lower Yukon are fairly well-built people, averaging among the men about 5 feet 2 or 3 inches in height. The Yukon Eskimo and those living southward from that river to the Kuskokwim are, as a rule, shorter and more squarely built. The Kuskokwim people are darker of complexion than those to the northward, and have rounder features. The men commonly have a considerable growth of hair on their faces, becoming at times a thin beard 2 or 3 inches in length, with a well-developed mustache. No such development of beard was seen elsewhere in the territory visited.

The people in the coast region between the mouths of the Kuskokwim and the Yukon have peculiarly high cheek bones and sharp chins, which unite to give their faces a curiously pointed, triangular appearance. At the village of Kaialigamut I was impressed by the strong development of the superciliary ridge. From a point almost directly over the pupil of the eye and extending thence inward to the median line of the forehead is a strong bony ridge causing the brow to stand out sharply. From the outer edge of this the skull appears as though beveled away to the ears, giving the temporal area a considerable enlargement beyond that usually shown. This curious development of the skull is rendered still more striking by the fact that the bridge of the nose is low, as usual among these people, so that the shelf-like projection of the brow stands out in strong relief. It is most strongly marked among the men and appears to be characteristic at this place. Elsewhere in this district it was noted only rarely here and there.

All of the people in the district about Capes Vancouver and Romanzof, and thence to the Yukon mouth, are of unusually light complexion. Some of the women have a pale, slightly yellowish color, with pink cheeks, differing but little in complexion from that of a sallow woman of Caucasian blood. This light complexion is so exceptionally striking that wherever they travel these people are readily distinguished from other Eskimo, and before I visited their territory I had learned to know them by their complexion whenever they came to St. Michael.

The people of the district just mentioned are all very short and squarely built. Inland from Cape Vancouver lies the flat marshy country about Big Lake, which is situated between the Kuskokwim and the Yukon. It is a well-populated district and its inhabitants differ from those near the coast at the capes referred to, in being taller, more slender, and having more squarely cut features. They also differ strikingly from any other Eskimo with whom I came in contact, except those on Kowak River, in having the bridge of the nose well developed and at times sufficiently prominent to suggest the aquiline nose of our southern Indian tribes.

The Eskimo of the Diomede Islands in Bering Strait, as well as those of East Cape and Mechigme and Plover Bays on the Siberian coast, and of St. Lawrence Island are tall, strongly built people and are generally similar in their physical features. These are characterized by the unusual heaviness of the lower part of the face due to the very square and massive lower jaw, which, combined with broad, high cheek bones and flattened nose, produces a wide, flat face. These features are frequently accompanied with a low retreating forehead, producing a decidedly repulsive physiognomy. The bridge of the nose is so low and the cheek bones so heavy that a profile view will frequently show only the tip of the person's nose, the eyes and upper portion of the nose being completely hidden by the prominent outline of the cheek. Their eyes are less oblique than is common among the people living southward from the Yukon mouth. Among the people at the northwestern end of St. Lawrence Island there is a greater range of physiognomy than was noted at any other of the Asiatic localities.

The Point Hope people on the American coast have heavy jaws and well-developed superciliary ridges. At Point Barrow the men are remarkable for the irregularity of their features, amounting to a positive degree of ugliness, which is increased and rendered specially prominent by the expression produced by the short, tightly drawn upper lip, the projecting lower lip, and the small beady eyes. The women and children of this place are in curious contrast, having rather pleasant features of the usual type.

The Eskimo from Upper Kowak and Noatak Rivers who were met at the summer camp on Hotham Inlet are notable for the fact that a considerable number of them have hook noses and nearly all have a cast of countenance very similar to that of the Yukon Tienné. They are a larger and more robustly built people than these Indians, however, and speak the Eskimo language. They wear labrets, practice the tonsure, and claim to be Eskimo. * * * Among them was seen one man having a mop of coarse curly hair, almost negroid in character. The same feature was observed in a number of men and women on the Siberian coast between East Cape and Plover Bay. This latter is undoubtedly the result of the Chukchi-Eskimo mixture, and in the case of the man seen at Hotham Inlet the same result had been brought about by the Eskimo-Indian combination. Among the Eskimo south of Bering Strait on the American coast not a single instance of this kind was observed. The age of the individuals having this curly hair renders it quite improbable that it came from an admixture of blood with foreign voyagers, since some of them must have been born at a time when vessels were extremely rare along these shores. As a further argument against this curly hair having come from white men, I may add that I saw no trace of it among a number of people having partly Caucasian blood. As a general thing, the Eskimo of the region described, have small hands and feet and the features are oval in outline, rather flat and with slightly oblique eyes.

Children and young girls have round faces and often are very pleasant and attractive in feature, the angular race characteristics becoming prominent after the individuals approach manhood. The women age rapidly, and only a very small proportion of the people live to an advanced age.

The Malemut and the people of Kaviak Peninsula, including those of the islands in Bering Strait are tall, active, and remarkably well built. Among them it is common to see men from 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall and of proportionate build. I should judge the average among them to be nearly or quite equal in height to the whites.

Among the coast Eskimos, as a rule, the legs are short and poorly developed, while the body is long with disproportionately developed dorsal and lumbar muscles, due to so much of their life being passed in the kaiak.

The Eskimo of the Big Lake district, south of the Yukon, and from the Kaviak Peninsula, as well as the Malemut about the head of Kotzebue Sound, are on the contrary very finely proportioned and athletic men who can not be equaled among the Indians of the Yukon region. * * * There were a number of half-blood children among the Eskimo, resulting from the intercourse with people from vessels and others, who generally show their Caucasian blood by large, finely shaped, and often remarkably beautiful brown eyes. The number of these mixed bloods was not very great.

1905, Jackson:[92]

The Eskimos of Alaska are a much finer race physically than their kindred of Greenland and Labrador. In the extreme north, at Point Barrow, and along the coast of Bering Sea they are of medium size. At Point Barrow the average height of the males is 5 feet 3 inches and average weight 153 pounds; of the women, 4 feet 11 inches and weight 135 pounds. On the Nushagak River the average weight of the men is from 150 to 167 pounds. From Cape Prince of Wales to Icy Cape along the Arctic Coast and on the great inland rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean they are a large race, many of them being 6 feet and over in height.[93] They are lighter in color and fairer than the North American Indian, have black and brown eyes, black hair, some with a tinge of brown, high cheek bones, fleshy faces, small hands and feet, and good teeth. The men have thin beards.

1916, Hawkes:[94]

The Alaskan Eskimo are a taller and more symmetrical people than their brethren of the central and eastern districts. They lack that appearance of stoutness and squatness inherent in the eastern stock, and for proportion and development of the various parts of the body they do not compare unfavorably with Indians and whites. It is not unusual to find in an Alaskan Eskimo village several men who are 6 feet tall, with magnificent shoulders and arms and bodily strength in proportion. The usual height, however, is about 168 centimeters for men, which is some 10 centimeters above the height of the eastern Eskimo. * * * The average for women among the western Eskimo is 158 centimeters, which approximates the height of the men in the Hudson Bay region, 158 centimeters (Boas). The female type in Alaska is taller and slimmer than in the east, and the width of the face is considerably less. Eskimo women of large stature are often seen in the northern section of Alaska. The individual variation here is more conspicuous than in Labrador or Hudson Bay.

1923, Jenness:[95]

In his report on the Copper Eskimos, D. Jenness gives excellent descriptive notes on this group with references to others. These notes, too voluminous to be transcribed, may well be consulted in these connections.

FOOTNOTES:

[67] Cook, Capt. James, and Capt. James King. A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. London, 1784, II, vol. 2, p. 300.

[68] Kotzebue, Otto von, A voyage of discovery into the South Sea and Bering Strait, 1815-1818, vol. 1, p. 209. London, 1821.

[69] Beechey, F. W., Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Bering Strait. Philadelphia, 1832, pp. 474-476.

[70] Latham, Robert G., The varieties of man. London, 1850, pp. 290-292.

[71] Hooper, W. H., Ten months among the tents of the Tuski. London, 1853, pp. 223-224.

[72] Seemann, Berthold, Narrative of the voyage of H. M. S. _Herald_. London, 1853, vols. I-II. On the Anthropology of Western Eskimo Land and on the Desirability of Further Arctic Research. J. Anthrop. Soc., London, 1865, vol. III, p. 301.

[73] Richardson, Sir John, The Polar Regions. Edinburgh, 1861, p. 301.

[74] Dall, W. H., Alaska and Its Resources. Boston, 1870.

[75] Orarian, a term used by the author to distinguish the tribes of Innuit, Aleutians, and Asiatic Eskimo from the natives known under the name of Indian, in allusion to the universal coastwise distribution of the former.

[76] Bancroft, Hubert H., The Native Races of the Pacific States. Vol. I, New York, 1874. Wild Tribes, p. 45.

[77] _Color._--"Their complexion, if divested of its usual covering of dirt, can hardly be called dark."--Seemann's Voy. _Herald_, vol. II, p. 51. "In comparison with other Americans of a white complexion."--McCulloh's Aboriginal Hist. of America, p. 20. "White complexion, not copper coloured."--Dobb's Hudson's Bay, p. 50. "Almost as white as Europeans."--Kalm's Travels, vol. II, p. 263. "Not darker than that of a Portuguese."--Lyon's Journal, p. 224. "Scarcely a shade darker than a deep brunet."--Parry's Third Voyage, p. 493. "Their complexion is light."--Dall's Alaska, p. 381. "Eyewitnesses agree in their superior lightness of complexion over the Chinooks."--Pickering's Races of Man, U. S. Ex. Ex., IX, 28. At Coppermine River they are "of a dirty copper color; some of the women, however, are more fair and ruddy."--Hearne's Travels, p. 166. "Considerably fairer than the Indian tribes."--Simpson's Nar., p. 110. At Cape Bathurst "the complexion is swarthy, chiefly, I think, from exposure and the accumulation of dirt."--Armstrong's Nar., p. 192. "Show little of the copper color of the Red Indians."--Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 303. "From exposure to weather they become dark after manhood."--Richardson's Nar., I, 343.